Concise and bursting with practical advice, How to Self-Publish and Market a Book delivers exactly what its title promises, with clear eyes and little fat.

*A review by Nancy Taiani: author of Healing Father John and The Mushroom’s Other Hat Hank Quense’s How to Self-Publish and Market a Book everything you need to know if you’re considering self- publishing your manuscript. Don’t begin without this book!

Right from the start, Quense wisely advises the first time self-publisher to find a mentor. And his book is the perfect mentor, virtually holding your hand and guiding you through the process of self-producing a quality book package. It covers everything from budgeting to formatting–print or ebooks, to marketing your book.~ Booklife assessment

Hank Quense has done a very thorough job with this book, “How to Self-Publish and Market a Book.” He has made it simple to follow and not overwhelming for the average self-publisher. Don’t know how to start with Twitter? He breaks it down. Don’t know the difference between a packager and publisher? Don’t know what the average costs are? Quense knows that too.

It’s clear from reading this book that Quense knows what he’s talking about from personal experience, and the things he’s figured out along the way. Perfect for the newbie who isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel.~ Florence Chavez

This book gives a great insight to not only what it takes to self-publish, but various ways to promote. As he shows, the work doesn’t stop as you type the end. Instead, he shares his insight and knowledge on how to promote yourself across various platforms. As an avid reader, I always looked at giveaways as just again for the fans. But now I realize its an effective way to get traffic and share your book.

What I also found fascinating is how he breaks down what different formats there are for ebooks, print books, and even audiobooks as well as their costs. For example, the most cost-effective way to publish at this point is just ebooks.~ Shani K

Edition #100 – February 2, 2020

HOW TO SELF-PUBLISH AND MARKET A BOOK

By Hank Quense

Self-publishing a book for the first time isn’t for the faint of heart: it’s a daunting project that takes time and money. Just because you wrote a book (of which you should be proud) doesn’t mean you know anything about self-publishing that book. Authoring a book and publishing that book are two completely different endeavors.

As you start your journey toward self-publishing your book, you will undoubtedly explore the internet searching for information. That’s where the trouble and confusion can start. The internet has tons of information on self-publishing. Some of this information may be accurate and some of it may be inaccurate. Some of it is wrong and some of it may lead you into the clutches of scammers and others out to make money without giving value for your money.

The best way to go about your maiden self-publishing project is to have a mentor — someone who has navigated the self-publishing swamp and survived the journey — and that is what I offer with this book. My book provides you with a wealth of information about self-publishing (indeed it lays out a plan for you to follow). I have self-published over twenty-five books, both fiction and non-fiction. Along the way, I’ve made mistakes and I’ve fallen for scams. This of course means I have a lot of experience and expertise, all of which I share.

This book recommends starting the project six months before the launch date. While this may seem strange, it provides time to complete all the tasks without going into overload. There are tasks to be completed at monthly intervals — six, five, four, three, launch and post-launch.

Before you begin your journey into publishing and marketing, let me give you a few words of advice and encouragement: You can do this!

Most books on publishing deal with publishing by itself. Most books on marketing deal with marketing as a stand-alone project. I think this is the wrong approach. Self-publishing and book marketing have to be considered as an integrated project. That is what this book does; it treats publishing and marketing together as a unified project.

Successfully self-publishing a book gives one a fantastic ego boost. It’s almost as good as writing the book! The thing is, self-publishing your book the professional way involves time and money (unless you elect to do it the lazy way). Technology and changes in the publishing industry have made self-publishing a book the lazy way easy to do. Indeed, it’s perhaps too easy. This book covers in depth the professional way.

Hank Quense writes satirical fantasy and sci-fi. Early in his writing career, he was strongly influenced by two authors: Douglas Adams and his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. Happily, Hank has never quite recovered from those experiences.

He lives with his wife in northern New Jersey, a mere 20 miles from Manhattan, the center of the galaxy (according to those who live in Manhattan). They have two daughters and five grandchildren all of whom live nearby.

For vacations, Hank and Pat usually visit distant parts of the galaxy. Occasionally, they also time-travel.

Currently, Quense has five non-fiction books available on Amazon along with fourteen novels. His next fictional project will be to expand the Zaftan Troubles series with three more novels. He is also pondering a few new non-fiction books and he’s getting an urge to write a few short stories, something he hasn’t done in quite a few years. Besides writing novels, Hank lectures on fiction writing, publishing and book marketing. He is most proud of his talk showing grammar school kids how to create a short story. He used these lectures to create an advanced ebook with embedded videos to coach the students on how to create characters, plots and setting. The target audience is 4th to 7th graders. The book’s title is Fiction Writing Workshop for Kids.

Since his lectures are geographically restricted to Northern New Jersey, Hank has been working on converting his lectures to online video courses that an be watched from anywhere. These video courses will concentrate on fiction writing and self-publishing. The first two courses are titled Story Design and Self-publishing Starter Kit. Story Design covers the development of the elements needed in a fictional story: characters, plot, setting, scene design, character arc and more. The Self-publishing Starter Kit is a bundle of four videos designed to get a first time self-publisher off on the right path. The videos cover a self-publishing overview, a first step in marketing the book, converting a manuscript to an ebook and publishing and marketing scams.